Simon Says

Friday, October 28, 2016

Which is rare enough these days, but rarer still is that it came to me at work. From a customer I have been in correspondence with a couple of times in recent months about a bus stop. Now I don't know about anyone else, but when I go on holiday the last thing I would think to do would be to carry on a conversation with someone at the council or a business I was complaining to. Still, nice to receive it all the same.

We've been away twice this year (another post to come on that) but didn't send any cards. I wonder if it is time to try and revive the idea.

Sunday, February 07, 2016

So, these posts seem to get later every year. Ah well. If anyone was actually waiting for it, here's the list of books I consumed in 2015. Pretty much every one a winner.

Amanda

Palmer

The Art Of Asking

Nick

Catford

Secret Underground London

Neil

Gaiman

The Sleeper And The Spindle

Randall

Munroe

What if?

Harriet

Tuckey

Everest: The First Ascent

Stuart

Maconie

Never Mind The Quantocks

George R.R.

Martin

A Feast For Crows

John

Lanchester

What We Talk About When We Talk About The Tube (The District Line)

Alistair

Maclean

The Way To Dusty Death

Phill

Jupitus

Good Morning Nantwich

George R.R.

Martin

A Dance With Dragons: Dreams And Dust

George R.R.

Martin

A Dance With Dragons: After The Feast

Lucy

Wadham

Heads And Straights (The Circle Line)

Jen

Campbell

The Bookshop Book

Alistair

Maclean

Breakheart Pass

Miranda

July

No One Belongs Here More Than You

Andy

Frankham-Allen

Companions: Fifty Years Of Doctor Who Assistants

Jasper

Rees

I Found My Horn

Kitty

Ferguson

Pythagoras

Simon

Okotie

Whatever Happened To Harold Absalon?

Sarah

Henshaw

The Bookshop That Floated Away

John

O'Farrell

A History Of Capitalism According To The Jubilee Line (The Jubilee Line)

Mark

Forsyth

The Unknown Unknown

Mike

Gayle

His 'N' Hers

Julie

Gardiner

The Blitz

Caught By The River

On Nature

William

Leith

A Northern Line Minute (The Northern Line)

Deborah

Cadbury

Chocolate Wars

Genevieve

Cogman

The Invisible Library

Anna

Hughes

Eat Sleep Cycle: A Bike Ride Around The Coast Of Britain

Mick

Conefrey

How To Climb Mont Banc In A Skirt

Brian

Viner

Cream Teas, Traffic Jams And Sunburn - The Great British Holiday

Julian

May

The Many Coloured Land

Terry

Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen

The Science Of Discworld IV: Judgement Day

J. B.

Morrison

Frank Derrick's Holiday Of A Lifetime

Sophie

Neville

The Making Of Swallows & Amazons

Dave

Gorman

Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure (Abridged)

Jon

Ronson

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Camila

Batmanghelidjh & Kids Company

Mind The Child (The Victoria Line)

Julian

May

The Golden Torc

Warren

Elsmore

Brick City: Lego For Grown Ups

Florence

Williams

Breasts. A Natural And Unnatural History

Melvyn

Bragg

The Book Of Books

Margalit

Fox

Riddle Of The Labyrinth: The Quest To Crack An Ancient Code

Dan

Brown

Inferno

Richard

Mabey

A Brush With Nature

Magnus

Anderson & Rebecca Levene

Grand Thieves & Tomb Raiders – How British Video Games Conquered The World

Philippe

Parreno

Drift (The Hammersmith & City Line)

Charles

Schulz

Waiting For The Great Pumpkin

Julian

May

The Non-Born King

Charles

Schulz

Snoopy's Thanksgiving

Magnus

Mills

A Cruel Bird Came To The Nest And Looked In

Jerry

Brotton

A History Of The World In Twelve Maps

Julian

May

The Adversary

Peter

York

The Blue Riband (The Piccadilly Line)

Lemmy with Janiss Garza

White Line Fever

John

Scalzi

How I Proposed To My Wife: An Alien Sex Story

John

Scalzi

An Election

Probably not as much "diversity" as might have been hoped for after this post about attempting to widen out horizons, although things look better when you realise that Julian May is female... The favourite of the year was Sophie Neville's account of the making of the Swallows and Amazons film - I have always loved the film as much as the books and so wish they had made more. Hopefully the forthcoming new adaptation will lead to sequels (although I am not holding my breath, and am worried about plot changes I have seen bit of). Oh, and although we got to meet Sophie at a screening of the film a few weeks after I read the book, it would still have been my favourite of the year.

I've still got one book left from the Penguin box set commemorating 150 years of the London Underground, and the second tranche of Julian May's Pliocene/Galactic Mileu saga to read but otherwise no plans for particular authors or subjects this year. Just whatever is on the shelf and takes my fancy. (Which can be interpreted as me trying not to buy too many new books this year and cut down on the unread ones I already own, but the chances of that working are slim).

Friday, January 15, 2016

What, where did the time go? For now let us just say that the depression came back and hit me like a hammer, to the point of having to take time off work to change medication and generally get back to reality (hello side effects, hello fresh scars from a spot of self-harming, hello therapy once more). I might write more about that another time, but let's think of better things for now and look back at my top tunes of last year.

Here's the obligatory word cloud:

I don't suppose there will be many surprises in there for people who have read these posts before but some favourite releases and old favourites to note...

Of albums released during 2016, I can't speak highly enough of Iron Maiden's Book Of Souls, Public Service Broadcasting's The Race For Space and Anti-Nasty League from Pop Will Eat Itself. About as different from each other as any three random discs could be but all played multiple times and loved equally. And the second tier of newness belongs to Motorhead (RIP Lemmy), The Darkness Slayer, Thunder and Kim Boekbinder.

I also went to my first gig in far too many years when we went to see Ginger Wildheart on his Songs & Words tour. OK, so that was a mix of spoken word and acoustic excerpts rather than the full-on rawk experience but it was still a damn good night out and I am so looking forward to the accompanying book and DVD which will hopefully be with us soon.

Being a fan of the comedy song, we also went to see Richard Digance at the newly re-opened Spa Pavilion here in Felixstowe. We've seen him several times over the years, but this time he brought a support act - local lads the Broadside Boys. Suffolk-centred folk and a real joy to encounter. I'm looking forward to catching them again somewhere in the county this year.

If I had managed to stay at work for November and December I would have finally finished the epic in-car listening through of all CDs by artists I only have one disc by. Not driving to work every day rather put paid to that, but only a few left to go before I dig into discs by artists I own two albums on CD by!

The amount of listening I did in the first month when I was off can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Losing the will to stick an album on (and indeed the ability to stay focussed long enough to listen to a whole disc) was possibly the hardest thing for me to get through - music is such an integral part of my life. I'm back with tunes all the time now, and it is such a relief.

Looking forward to 2016 we have new albums from the Wonder Stuff, CJ Wildheart, Love Zombies and the Dowling Poole already pre-ordered with Hey! Hello! Too and Megadeth also on the way. Hopefully it is going to be another corker of newness and we will see if I can find some new to me oldies as well.

Friday, September 04, 2015

And thus the habit of nearly 30 years is ended by
the whims of the record industry…

Ever since I was old enough to understand the
concept of album release dates and been able to find them out, Monday has been
THE day. It must have been somewhere around
14-15 when I started actually buying music magazines and perusing every page
rather than just glancing through them in the library or newsagent if someone I
knew was on the cover. Up to then I
would have just bought new music when I happened to see it (Or make a note of
it for Christmas and birthday lists).
But getting an album or single the day it came out and thus being among
the first to hear it was a thrill to make starting a new week of
school/college/work somewhat more bearable.

After school walks or bike rides in to town
(Welwyn Garden City) to visit Our Price or Woolworths or an outing to Stevenage
or Hatfield for variety or school clothes giving an opportunity to visit the
independent shops there. Or their
branches of OP and WW. Heck, Hatfield
even had an enormous Woolco store where I distinctly remember obtaining the
Belle Stars album on cassette.

College bus journeys back to halls/shared
houses taken via the town centre (Derby) to stake out Way Ahead, Woollies or
HMV.

Mid-morning wandering in to town (Felixstowe)
to pop into Ian’s Records or yet another branch of F.W.’s empire during the
summer after I graduated when I was unemployed (and handy that I had to sign-on
on a Monday so was forced into town once a fortnight). And then dropped back to lunch time when I
got a job in town.

Promotion to Ipswich bringing with it the
variety of another Our Price, HMV, Virgin, John Menzies, Woollies and most importantly
Compact Music. They were a wonderful
independent that gave a voucher with every disc purchased. Collected enough of them for several free
albums over the years.

A couple of years in Newmarket with yet another
Woollies and another indie I can no longer remember the name of (last time I
looked it was a branch of Costa). Woollies
again in Stowmarket with a back-up ASDA, and then back to Ipswich where I have
been ever since and the options have whittled themselves down to just HMV.

But always, that Monday journey to obtain the
eagerly anticipated or the unexpected surprises. The scrutiny of sleeves and booklets and
reading of lyrics and credits while eating lunch or in stolen moments during
the afternoon. The building anticipation
on the journey home. The first crackling
kiss of stylus touching vinyl, the clunk of the cassette player or the whirr of the
CD player and then the sounds themselves.
Something to discuss at school/college/work the next day. A joy to be repeated daily or a
disappointment to try and find the good in until the next batch of newness
arrived. The re-arranging of shelves to
fit the new arrivals in. Even the addition
of entries to a database - all elements of the start of the week.

And now we have to transfer that feeling onto a
Friday, with the weekend beckoning - full of its own entertainments and putting
off the Monday drabness that new music helps to dispel.

I'll enjoy today's purchases over the weekend I'm sure but it just doesn't seem right. (And before anyone wants to get pedantic yes, I know the Motorhead came out last week but I was off work and enjoying a day in the garden with MrsB).

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

After
a minor joke around my birthday time I am currently revisiting a childhood
obsession with Lego. I’ll be the first
to admit that I never stopped being interested in the wee plastic blocks (as
the presence of a couple of newspaper freebies and numerous individual minifigs
around the house will prove) but not to the extent that it has been filling my
spare time of late. I can’t recall a
first set, it was just something that was always there when I was growing up –
the toy of choice in most circumstances.
Having Danish ancestry must have been a plus point in the accumulation
of the stuff, and I do recall that some of our sets were inherited from cousins
(and the uncle in that case worked for Shell which must explain why we have so
many petrol station pieces!) but for many years it was top of the Christmas and
Birthday lists. Being the older of two
brothers meant I must have had a bit longer on the pure play level than might
be normal but I can’t be sure on when either of us bought our last childhood
kit either (although there are some great web sites out there giving dates sets
were released where I could work it out if I could be bothered). We definitely visited Legoland on Danish
holidays in 1980 and 1984 and I know I bought some on that second trip, but
after that things get a bit hazy. The
last I recall is sorting it all out into categories in separate ice cream tubs for
storage in the loft sometime before we moved to Felixstowe in 1989.

Although not building anything in the years following that,
I kept pace with what was available through the simple expedient of working for
Argos. All those deliveries and sales
passing through my hands meant I was up to date with everything new until I
finally escaped from retail in 1998, and even then stayed in touch through the catalogue
as Joan didn’t leave there until 2006 and we still picked one up every six
months after that. When the bagged
single minifigures started appearing in the shops I resisted but finally
succumbed around series 3, and there I was back in the collecting game
again. OK, only the people and the
freebies mentioned above but still it began to nag at me. And as it was the 21st century
starting looking at the odd fan site on the web and sought out photos on flickr
(and started taking some pics myself). Then
last year while we were in America I gave in to temptation in a larger way in
the Lego store at Disneyland with the purchase of the Back To The Future
set. Which was great fun to build, and
introduced me to a whole load of techniques not officially employed back in the
good old days. I blame watching the Lego
movie on the flight over!

So, when I couldn’t think of anything I fancied for my
birthday (see depression post below) I suggested my brother should go up in the
Parent’s loft and find me a technic set to build. He ended up getting the whole lot down and
all the tubs are now sat in my study, calling out to me every time I pass the door. When I brought them home there was some discussion
about passing them on to the offspring
of a cousin (said cousin having split from his wife and now needing a set of
toys at each home) but I’m not sure I’m ready to give it away just yet. If nothing else I wanted to know exactly what
was in those tubs and reminisce unashamedly for a while. Which has nicely coincided with a couple of
tv shows about Lego and adult fans and the launch of a magazine or two. Not that I have bought any of those, but they
are interesting to flick through.

Up to now I have built a couple of ancient (and presumably
inherited) sets from the days before the minifig was invented (a bus,
naturally, and a Shell station) all the space sets I can find pieces for and
tonight will see me finish off the technical stuff. I suspect I will then work my way through the
classic town sets and all the older bits I can work out from the bricks that
remain. 30 years on from my last
recalled construction binge I am having the time of my life and it seems to be
providing me with the therapy others are getting from all the adult colouring
books flooding the shops. Disappointed
that we have managed to lose a few bits along the way but there you go. Nothing I can’t improvise around.

And we are having a day trip to Legoland Windsor next week
as well. Must not let it take over my
life, but it will keep me amused for a few more months yet.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

I’ve
been wanting to write this post for a couple of weeks now, but have
been a bit scared to do so in case the act of writing it destroyed
the mood. But it is something I want to get out in the open so
here we go.

I
think I am now safe to declare that I am coming out of the worst six
or seven months of mental turmoil I have experienced in the last 15+
years. It really has not been a fun ride in my head of late but
things are pretty much back on an even keel now, and even if nobody
else ever reads this I want to record a few thoughts so I can look
back on this in future if I feel myself sliding again.

My
main problem is anxiety and dwelling on the past rather than straight
depression, but one leads to the other in my case and in this
instance I know the exact trigger that set it off. As readers may
know, I deal with bus stops, shelters etc. in my day job and over the
last couple of years we have done a load of work in Ipswich. Both
bus stations refurbished, new real time information system and other
stuff. And I have also been getting new bus shelters and enhanced
bus stops done across the rest of the County as well. All during a
time when I have basically had no help – my team member was
seconded to another role and it was over a year before we were
allowed to replace him. And that has taken three attempts with the
first person refusing the job in the end and the second failing his
probationary period (basically wasting six months trying to bring him
up to speed). So to say I was under a bit of pressure would be an
understatement.

Then
when we got to the Christmas works break imposed on us by the town
centre people there was a big fuss in the media about how the project
was running late, important bits weren't working and so forth. A lot
of that concentrated on the real time system to the point of the
local radio station interviewing people at one of the bus stations
and pointing out the one screen that wasn't working and ignoring the
rest that all were doing fine. Being the kind of chap who takes
things to heart, this sent me spiralling off the deep end and by the
time Christmas itself came around I was in a real black place.

I'm
not really sure how I got through Christmas as I just wanted to run
and hide most of time. This will sound terrible, but I guess it
helped that Joan had a bad tooth over the festive period. Being able
to focus on taking her to the dentist a couple of times and having
her to worry about managed to draw my focus away from me. When I
went back to work in the New Year I knew I had to do something about
it.

So, I
went to see my doctor and got my anti-depressants upped, and took the
step of seeking out some more help through our occupational health
service. I had had some counselling and cognitive behavioural
therapy back in 2000 last time I had a real flare up, so I knew it
would help, but admitting to myself that I needed it was one of the
toughest things I have ever done. But my word it helped, six
sessions over a couple of months with a really great bloke and I'm
close to feeling normal again. Some of the hardest conversations
I've ever had – the sessions left me physically as well as mentally
drained at first while I poured things out. I'm still reviewing bits
of them a month or so later and trying to look for the positives.

One
thing that has become clear to me is that I function best with plans
and targets – and not just in the work environment. When we have a
week off I like to think about things we could do, places to visit
and so forth and am terrible at just taking each day as it comes.
For example when we hit the states last year I had spent hours on the
web looking for things to see near our hotels, places to check out
when we had free time and so forth. And it didn't matter to me at
the end that we had done hardly any of them as the holiday was well
structured anyway, but going into it without a plan to fall back on
gave me the creeps. I'm the same every weekend – I need to think
about when we will go shopping, if we can take a day trip or
whatever. Just waking up on Saturday morning with nothing on the
agenda scares me! I feel like I flounder around and waste the day
without something to aim for. So telling myself that I want to sit
in the sun and read a couple of days in advance is much easier than
just deciding to relax and do just that on the day.

We
have also stopped paying attention to the local press, as they seem
to delight in pouncing on the smallest mistake or problem whilst
ignoring many of the great things that are being done.

I had
planned to write more than that when I started this draft a couple of
days ago, but can't now recall what so instead I shall drop in
something I wrote after the fourth session which sums up a lot of how
I felt.

I am
sitting at a desk, in an office, in an average building in an
ordinary town and I wonder why I am still here. I am not the oldest
person in my team, but I often feel I ought to be as I have been here
longer than anyone else. They make a joke of it when new people join
us: “oh, he's part of the furniture” they say. And I wonder
which part.

I have
been trodden on by the ambitious as they make their way into jobs I
have better skills for, so maybe I am the carpet. But does that
count? Is a carpet really furniture? So maybe I am a chair –
certainly I feel the weight of days sitting on me sometimes. And I
have saved many an overeager manager from hitting the floor when
their plans have gone awry.

Or
perhaps I am a desk – holding paper and pens and computers. The
tools we all need to meet our objectives. But no, most days I am a
filing cabinet – or in these modern times a data server.
Overflowing with images and information. Most of it forgotten, but
there to be dragged out when needed. Yes, that must be me, Been
here so long that I have seen it all before and stored it away, ready
to share and help when the others meet a problem for the first time.

And
now someone else has a question for me, and of course I know the
answer. But maybe this time the file will be encrypted. Let them
find the password to unlock my potential and then, perhaps, I can be
me again.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Reading this blog post (and the original
article mentioned) about diversity in reading material recently got me thinking
about how my choices away from the straight/white/cis/male author arena stack
up. And as I have the last few years-worth
of reading handily listed in posts here it is clear I’m not doing very well! It does get a bit better when you throw in
the Selected Shorts podcasts as I have been downloading and listening to them
for a couple of years, and they do cover a good spectrum of gender, ethnicity
and (presumably) sexuality of authors in the stories they present. But then, this is not something I have ever
really thought about before and has certainly never been a factor in choosing
what to buy and read for me.

I’m not sure why though. When it comes to non-fiction I guess there
aren’t that many women writing about the history of bus services or fighter
planes or some of the other subjects that fascinate me but that doesn’t mean I
won’t be looking out for them from now on.
Of course in some areas it is going to be decidedly tricky to be more
diverse - the fact that nobody other
than straight white men went to the moon makes it hard to read an autobiography
outside that category and I’ve not seen any books about them from the female
perspective either. But there have been
female and coloured astronauts since then so one of those must have a book out there. And I have got Lilly Koppel’s “The Astronaut’s
Wives Club” sat on the shelf waiting for me to pick it up. Indeed I have actually done two ladies in my
non-fiction this year already (Amanda Palmer – The Art Of Asking and Harriet Tuckey
– Everest) and have a couple more in the waiting pile.

However, one thing I don’t often do in
non-fiction reading is seek out other books by the same author unless they are
on similar subjects or again look interesting.
For a (s/w/c/m) example – Charlie Connolly has written about the
shipping forecast, Elvis and walking in three books I really enjoyed, but also
about football in which I have no interest so will never delve into. But I am going to be more pro-active here in
future, especially when I find a non-fiction writer of the
gay/coloured/female/trans (not necessarily all at once!) persuasion I enjoy the
works of.

Fiction-wise I guess I have done better over
the years, as I do enjoy female writers. Anne McCaffrey, Jean M. Auel, Julian May and
Katherine Kerr are particular favourites in the fantasy/sci-fi field, and as
the basic unit of book there is the fat trilogy (often with many more than
three books) there have been years they have dominated. But when it comes to different ethnicities
etc. I again admit to falling flat. Mind
you, I’d read two or three of his books before I discovered Mike Gayle was
black, so there may be other surprises on my shelves. But, despite listening to the short stories
from Selected Shorts, I have not dashed out to buy anything from any of the
authors featured other than those I was already a fan of. Some of this must be from wanting the written
equivalent of comfort food from my fiction.
I have heard tales of growing up black in the south, or as an oriental
woman transformed into a mutant silkworm or whatever, but haven’t always found them enjoyable. I think this is partly linked to my
depression in that I see racial or religious strife on the news, and don’t want
that when I’m trying to escape for a few pages.
In the same way that I know enough of the history of domestic service in
the UK to never want to watch Downton Abbey, I am OK with a chapter or
undercurrent about it in a history of country houses but wouldn’t want a story
set amongst the occupants of such a home.
(Heck, I struggle with servants being abused in fantasyland castles, but
then I’m already accepting dragons and wizards so I know it is not real people
suffering).

So the question is, am I going to
challenge myself to only read books by non-white/straight/cis males for a
year? Answer, no. But I am going to attempt to mix things up
more. The main reason for this being
that I have already set myself the challenge of not buying any more books until
I’ve got through a significant percentage of my unread collection. And I know most of that will not pass. But then I don’t have the same issues
with books by w/s/c/m authors that others do so avoiding them is not a way of
improving my life or avoiding uncomfortable things. But who knows, when I do let myself start
buying books again, perhaps things will be over a much wider spectrum…